As Gene Smith did his due diligence before offering Urban Meyer the Ohio State coaching job, Meyer’s record on the field was only part of the criteria.

Considering that NCAA compliance failures were the undoing of Jim Tressel and that proper player conduct off the field has been a long-stated priority, those were important areas to examine.

Compliance proved not to be much of an issue, but a spate of player arrests at Florida was.

According to The Orlando Sentinel, 25 Gators players were arrested a total of 31 times during Meyer’s six years at Florida. Most of the charges were minor, such as underage drinking, and were dismissed or reduced. But a few were serious, including a felony burglary charge against quarterback Cam Newton. Meyer suspended Newton for the 2008 season. Newton left Florida and resurfaced at Auburn, where he won the 2010 Heisman Trophy and led the Tigers to the national title.

“At the end of the day, one is too many,” Smith said of the incidents of crime. “(Meyer) and I had a great discussion about it. We vetted it and did some further investigation on our own and came away feeling comfortable with how it was managed.

“I think people have to consider our environment, how we operate and the things we do. So I think here, it will be a little bit different for him.”

Meyer was asked about the crime issue during Monday’s introductory news conference.

“I know there’s been some issues that we’ve had that I’ve had to deal with, not that we’re proud of,” he said. “We have a set of core values — honesty, respect. No. 1, treat everyone with respect. No. 2, no drugs, no stealing, no weapons. Those are core-value issues. You’re either dismissed, or you miss a good bunch of (playing) time.”

Meyer said the number of times his players at Florida were arrested has been exaggerated. But he, like Smith, said that one is too many.

“Our job as a coaching staff is to mentor, to discipline and to educate young people,” he said. “And we’ve had a pretty good track record. We ran into some bumps in the road at the University of Florida.

“Does that mean we had bad kids? I’ll fight that forever. No, absolutely not, we did not have bad guys. Did they make stupid mistakes? Yeah. ... We’re going to go really hard and try to recruit really good people to represent Ohio State. That does not mean we’re going to give up on kids. So that’s kind of the belief we have here.”

In terms of compliance, Meyer’s record is almost spotless. Probably the closest he came to a significant violation was when he called a recruit and also talked to his girlfriend, a gymnast, and encouraged her to join the recruit at Florida. Coaches aren’t allowed to recruit for more than one sport. The NCAA exonerated Meyer.

Doug Archie, OSU’s head of compliance, had the same job at Utah when Meyer was the Utes’ coach. He said Meyer was diligent about following NCAA rules.

“He asked a lot of questions,” Archie said. “He had a very strong sense of integrity and held himself and his coaching staff to the highest standard.”

Florida compliance official Jamie McCloskey had a similar opinion.

“He was very easy to work with,” he said. “He wanted to do the right things. The only time Urban got frustrated was when other coaches at other schools didn’t have the same commitment to compliance. He was aware of the rules. He followed the rules.

“He was great. He understood that it’s not worth it to put yourself, the program and the university in danger. I think he’ll be one of those coaches you can point to that does things the right way at the same time he’s having great success on the field.”